In The Aftermath

Friday, 15 August 2014 13:40

Written by Bobbi C.

2 Comments

One of the things that has come to the fore in the wake of Robin Williams’s suicide is an open, wide-ranging discussion all across the interwebs of mental illness in general and depression in particular, much of which has been profound and thought-provoking.

Although Williams’s wife released a statementyesterday assuring the public of her husband’s sobriety, along with the previously undisclosed revelation that he’d also been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, shed a little new light on what may have led to his untimely demise, it’s my personal hope that if anything good can come from the overwhelming sense of trying to understand what he was going through, it’s that it may lead to breakthroughs in our perceptions of depression moving forward.

With that in mind, here are some links to an article and two blog posts I was alerted to in the past few days that I thought might interest you, as well:

First and foremost, those of you with access to The Disney Channel might want to know that they’ll be running “Aladdin” at various times throughout this weekend. Given that it’s always been not only one of my favorite Disney cartoons but Robin Williams performances, I’ll definitely be firing up the DVR and watching it again soon myself. See the info. about times/listings here.

Annabelle Giles, a British celebrity I was heretofore completely unaware of, has written incredibly apt descriptions of what it’s like to be depressed, and what friends and family can do to help their depressed loved ones, on her personal blog – see it here.

In a post which reflects something closest to my own experience, Marc Lewis writes what he sees in Williams’s struggles with addiction and depression on his blog, Memoirs of an Addicted Brain, here.

Finally, all of this will be further discussed in the third and final installment in my series of personal posts, “Bodies in Motion”, coming next week. In the meantime, I wish a peaceful weekend to us all.

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2 thoughts on “In The Aftermath”

Richard

Thank you for this post, Bobbi. Indeed, Williams death has seemed to reverberate through our little community of recovering folks, and hit most of us harder than any celebrity death since…oh, John Lennon comes to mind. First, as with Lennon, he was a one-of-a-kind talent, and gave us all such joy and laughter. And his relapse after so long is haunting, since most of us haven’t even hit the ten year mark, much less twenty.

I forget who linked to that piece by Marc Lewis on the Safelist, but it’s brilliant. The link they gave didn’t work for me, so I was only able to read it here. Thanks again.

You’re very welcome! And yeah, I was thinking that the last really huge death that hit as many people as hard as this one has was Lennon’s. I mean, Kurt Cobain’s death was a big deal, too, but it didn’t affect so many people in different generations because he hadn’t been around long enough to have become as revered and such a big part of so many different people’s memories. For example, I can remember RW since my childhood, because I was just a kid when “Mork and Mindy” was on, and then last night, at the grocery store, we parked next to a young couple, probably in their early 20’s, who had placed their edition of the “Jumanji” board game on the dash of their car – I can only assume as their own kind of tribute to Williams – and I’m sure their memories of him are just as warm and fuzzy as mine, only having started to form 20 or so years later than mind did.

Anyhoo, I really enjoyed the Marc Lewis piece especially, too, as it hit home for me on a sort of mind-blowing level, and I’m glad you enjoyed it, too.